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NEW YORK (AP) — Veteran stand-up comic Patrice O’Neal, who gained a wider following through TV and radio and helped roast Charlie Sheen, died Tuesday from complications of a stroke he suffered last month. He was 41. O’Neal’s manager, Jonathan Brandstein, said he died in a New York-area hospital.

“Many of us have lost a close and loved friend; all of us have lost a true comic genius,” Brandstein said in a statement. O’Neal appeared on Conan O’Brien’s and David Letterman’s TV shows and was a frequent guest on the “Opie & Anthony” radio show on Sirius XM. His performance was a highlight of the Comedy Central roast of Sheen, who had been fired from the hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men,” in September.

Sheen said in a tweet Tuesday, “The entertainment world as well as the world at large lost a brilliant man.” (more…)